Red Moon
by cristymv
Summary: William, a soldier from the Volturi, is assigned a pointless quest together with Alton, they both need to confirm the extinction of the Children of the Moon, turns out destiny has a sour sense of humor; an unexpected twist to what he once thought was lost and comfort for what lays ahead for him in the future.
1. Chapter 1

**_Chapter 1. William and Alton._**

**POV:**** William, a Soldier from the Volturi.**

**Location:**** Siberia**

**Year:**** Winter 1860**

Three years I´ve been stuck with this low life jerk; at first I thought that it might have been a preconceived notion of mine, but the more I get to know him the more aware I become that monsters do exist and they fall under three different categories:

First, there are the human monsters, selfish creatures that can only think of their own pleasure, no matter how far they need to go.

Second, there are the kind like me: vampires. We kill to satiate our thirst, not caring who our victim is.

Third, which is the worst kind, is a mixture of the two previous ones: a human monster who was transformed into a vampire. Lucky for me, I was stuck with one as my partner.

I don´t know why the masters decided to put Alton and me together for this quest; we couldn´t be any more different from each other. Maybe that was the actual reason. All I know, I need to make the masters happy, so if being with this asshole is what it takes, so be it.

I do believe our quest to be completely and utterly pointless. Searching for any signs of the Children of the Moon, pffft… is like saying go and bring me proof that the Boogey Man exists.

On the bright side, at least I have an excuse to run away from _her, _without getting on her bad side. If the masters order it, then it has to be followed.

I know most of the male vampires envy me for being chosen by her—I´ve made some enemies just by that simple fact—but it's not as if I had a word to say about it. I never had, not even when she decided to transform me into a vampire. This quest seemed like the answer I was looking for when it was assigned, until I met him.

"William," he starts approaching me, "daydreaming about Heidi again?" He joins my side, a smirk on his lips. Seems that his feeding was successful. I don´t dare to ask anymore; with him less is better, especially anything regarding that activity. He is not happy about me not sharing his same ´taste´ requirements, but kids and clerical people are off the menu for me and I don´t find any entertainment in ´playing´ with my food.

"I´ve told you. I am not interested in her." He looks at me as if I am crazy man.

"That is not what I kept seeing over and over and over." He grinds his groin in such a despicable way. I always tried to be discrete, but Heidi found it very exciting to do it in any imaginable place, so I am not sure if somebody actually got a glimpse of us. Alton could very well be making it up just to piss me off. I won´t give him the benefit.

"That is in the past. I have a clearer mind right now." I know about Heidi´s ability; once you are her target is almost impossible to say no to her, to whatever demand she wants.

"Wait 'til we go back; you might think differently after you see her again. I am sure she has quite a lot of energy stored for her ´little pet´." He laughs at his own joke, his booming laughter annoying me to the high heavens.

"I really don´t care what you think, Alton." I walk ahead of him, leaving him behind with his dark sense of humor.

It's not that I don´t like Heidi. She is very beautiful; indeed, physically, she is the perfect woman, voluptuous in all the right places, her long toned legs that only a few lucky bastards have been able to see, her small waist inviting you to wrap your arms around, her beautiful face, not a single imperfection on it. Men have fallen head over heels for her; who know how many sonnets humans and vampires have written about her beauty, or songs trying to capture her heart, but everything falls short of what she is looking for. With Heidi, things are simple; as long as you have the physical beauty that is worthy of her own and the right moves in bed, nothing else matters. Not sentiments, not intelligence, nothing.

However, that is not what I am looking for; if that was the case I would have settled a long time ago. As a human, I had enough girls chasing me; I was offered position and money from whatever kind of women you could think of: single, widows, and even married ones. However, I would not settle; if I were planning to spend the rest of my life with someone, she needed to be much more. Mother taught me well… Love is the key element for a long lasting relationship; your partner needs to be your friend and be compatible with you. Considering that I am now a vampire and my life span is a lot longer than a human, being tied down to the wrong girl would just add an extra weight to my own personal hell.

However, love is not in Heidi's plans; she just wants to be worshipped and looked up at by the rest of our community. She might think she loves me, just because I qualify for her own personal requirements; the problem is she doesn´t qualify on mine. The only thing that I was able to resist was telling her that I love her; it might not be much, but at least I managed to save a small piece of my dignity.

Alton catches up with me, his mood changing to business mode.

"William, the map." I pull the map from my cloak. I´ve marked what area we have covered and point to which area we need to take care of next.

Alton comes to my side and takes the map from my hands and starts analyzing it.

I look at all the red areas and feel some pride in our work.

These past three years we have covered a great expanse of land, although not as fast as I could wish, considering that most of each month we stay within the city walls, keeping a low profile, looking out for any probable rumor, story, or even town gossip that we can, just to make sure where to focus during the full moon. Well, at least I have; Alton, on the other hand, spent those days capturing and torturing young maidens until he finally drained the life out of them, creating a new set of gossip for the town.

When the full moon hits the sky, that is when the running starts; we move quickly through mountains, deserts… no forest is too deep, no cavern too dark. Any kind of sign is enough for us to make sure the area has no rock left unturned. I don´t know what a Child of the Moon looks or even smells like—I´ve only heard the description from the masters and Alton; that should be enough.

Alton has seen them. He accompanied Jane and Alec on one of their missions; he is happy to tell me the story over and over, with no editing, regarding how they ripped apart the creatures, killing every single one of them they were able to find. Alec was in charge of incapacitating the creatures and controlling them until the sun was up in the sky. Jane was in charge of torturing them, getting the truth of the location of others, while they were in their human form. Alton and a small group of guards were responsible for locating, tearing them apart and killing them, then burning their remains to the ground.

One by one they were falling. With the information that Jane was able to get from them, their expedition was not as long—no need to wait for the full moon—they knew where to find them. To make sure, they would kill anybody close to them—fathers, mothers, kids, even neighbors; so many innocent died, just to make sure the virus wouldn´t spread. According to Alton, they have become extinct.

Every now and then, another expedition would take place; so far, no new Children of the Moon have been found. So now, it is our turn; it seems we are halfway to ending this nonsense.

"Time to move east." Alton folds the map and not too kindly shoves it towards me. I put it back inside one of the pockets of my cloak. I can tell that his good mood is dimming; he enjoys the time we stay in the towns, but looking around for what he now refers to as a "myth" is something that he finds utterly boring. Orders are orders and he has every intention of regaining Aro´s approval and keeping Caius's esteem high.

"Let´s see if you can keep up with me," he says and turns to see my reaction. I keep my face serious, pretending I didn´t hear him. _Sure, asshole, keep thinking that, but one day I´ll prove you wrong!_

He starts running; he is not as fast as I am, but I let him believe that he is. The last thing I want is for him to ask me for a rematch. I´ve seen how terrible a loser he can be, same as Felix. They constantly keep fighting each other just to prove who is stronger and, honestly, it's annoying; so, for my benefit, I let him think he is better. I couldn´t give a damn.

Three years of seeing this guy's backside have taught me his moves. He, being the leader and knowing the enemy better, moves in front, deciding the direction where to go. He has become so predictable, placing too much trust on his instincts and brute force, not giving much thought on what is the smarter way to move. Lucky for me, I control the map and pretty much tell him in an indirect way where to go next; otherwise, we would probably be running in circles.

We start running swiftly through the taiga of Siberia; I like this kind of vegetation, with the forest covered in pine, spruces, and larches, probably not the best kind of terrain when you are looking for a mythical creature, lots of places to hide, making our task harder and slower than expected. However, our senses are on high alert and any kind of noise, smell, or movement makes us go back and take a second look at it. We keep this rhythm for six hours.

I am usually very calm, keeping a cool head during these kinds of explorations, but somehow tonight has been different. I feel my nerves creeping up; the further we go into the forest, the jumpier I become.

Alton hasn´t missed this; he gives me warning looks every now and then, making it clear that I need to stay focused, but I can´t. I feel that I am being followed, yet every time I turn around, there is nothing. The wind that comes straight from the east caresses our faces without bringing any strange aroma, but then again, if somebody is following us, the wind would be carrying our scents to the pursuers.

"Alton," I say, trying to keep my voice as low as I can. I know he hears but he ignores me. "We should go back, I have a hunch…"

"Soldier, keep up, we´ve already covered that area. There's no point in turning back." I know that I annoyed him; he likes to use his rank to make it clear who the boss is.

I hear a howl very far away, coming from the north; my eyes, being on Alton, don´t miss the small flinch that he tries to suppress. We´ve heard wolves howling in the past; this one is different, and Alton knows it based on his reaction.

"Alton." I try to get his attention, but he keeps on moving, as if nothing happened.

Another howl coming from the south finally makes him come to a complete stop. I am able to read his movements and avoid crashing into him. He turns towards me, his mouth shaped into a terrifying grin. I´ve seen it all before. He chooses his newest victim, a dark plan forming in the back of his mind, the sheer excitement of knowing that he will bring suffering to another creature and make their life a living hell for as long as they can keep up.

A third howl coming from the west makes me realize there is only one direction for us to keep on running. I start running but Alton stays puts.

"SOLDIER, STOP! Let them come," he screams at the top of his lungs, a disgusting pleasure in his voice. "We can take them down." If the creatures were not certain where we were, he just gave them a clear idea of our current location.

"They are in their wolf form." I remember the small piece of information that Alton taught me. A Child of the Moon in its wolf form is faster and stronger than most of the average vampires— having the advantage of a stronger jaw, they can easily pull us apart. Rumor has it Master Caius was almost killed by one and, right now, there are three headed our way.

"But they are dumber," he says, the excitement in his voice growing.

_What the hell? I know who is the dumbest of us all and it is not a Child of the Moon._

"It will be easier to track them during the daytime when they can´t phase," I say while I start hearing a low growling getting closer.

"No, they might hide. Our orders are clear, soldier; it's time to fight!" He puts his hands together and starts cracking his knuckles. He turns, his back now against mine, waiting for the enemy to come.

I start rethinking my choices and conclude that it would have been better to stay back with the sexy, controlling vampire rather than with the sadistic, crazy, ugly one. However, I didn´t have a choice about that decision—right now I do. I could leave him alone and let them kill Alton, making the world a better place. When daylight comes, I would track them and ´_avenge_´ his murder, therefore complying with the masters' orders. But we are a team, and as such, it is better for us to work together.

I turn around, tempted by the choice that my mind just thought of, just to realize that Alton is no longer next to me, his footprints clearly marked down in the snow towards the east.

_SON OF A BITCH!_ He just left me here with the werewolves to keep them entertained.

The growls are getting nearer from all three directions. Time to show Alton that I am not as slow as he thinks I am.


	2. Chapter 2

**_Chapter 2. Run for your life or Fight._**

**POV:**** William, a soldier from the Volturi.**

I catch up with Alton; as soon as he is aware of my presence next to him, I hear him cursing under his breath. _Coward! _Is the only thought that crosses my mind. I could outrun him, but I am a better man than he is, and my survival chances are better if we are together, so I stay next to him.

We´ve managed to put some distance between the creatures and ourselves. I no longer hear three sets of feet, or should I say paws, following us, just two. This is good news; splitting them will give us a better chance of killing the creatures.

We keep the pace for one hour, not talking to each other at all. The good news is that the sun is bound to rise soon; the bad news is one of the werewolves is catching up to us.

I can see that Alton is struggling to keep up with me.

"Soldier, we´ve split the group; that was what I was going for." _Sure, moron, do you really think I am that stupid?_ I don´t dare to speak aloud my thoughts, instead I give him a nod. "Now is the right time to kill the first one and then track the other two." He slows down and comes to a complete stop, his face looking either drained from the effort or by the fear.

I make a quick scan of the area; our best choice is to trick it. We are in a place with heavy vegetation; hiding would be easy, yet the idea is not to hide but to kill. We have precious seconds to come up with a plan.

"Alton, our best option is luring the creature to this spot and attacking it. So one of us will have to play bait." I look straight to his eyes.

"That was my exact same though.t" _Yeah, right!_ "I believe it would be better if you play bait." _Why am I not surprised?_ "I am stronger, I could easily tear apart the creature once we have it captured."

Am I going to trust I trust my life to the wrong hands? Not a chance. What is that old saying? Don´t put all your eggs in the same basket. So my backup plan is the sunrise; at least I know I can trust on it to make an appearance.

Before I can even provide him an answer, Alton disappears to ´hide´ or at least that is a more comforting thought than thinking he just left me back here alone.

I close my eyes and let my senses tell me the proximity of my opponent. Its growls are near; it didn´t bother in changing trajectory, following our steps. I will be able to see it soon. I open my eyes and there is a new scent in the air; it smells like a mixture of kerosene, wet dog, and an aroma that manages to send my mind to my human past. However, my nostrils are not accepting well this new scent and it is actually making me angry; I need to keep a clear head. Letting my feelings rule my actions is not a smart plan; I wouldn´t be any better than the feral creature.

Finally, my opponent shows its ugly face. Several feet from where I stand there is a creature; it looks similar to a wolf, but different enough for anybody to know that this is not your average creature. It is standing upright, not depending on its forelegs to move, and I can see that they are more powerful than its hind legs. Instead of paws, there are hands with opposable thumbs, which is not good. Paws would have given me an advantage; it would have only depended on its jaw to tear me apart. Hands work opposite to my plans and the long claws don´t help my cause.

I believe the creature to be approximately my same height and nowhere near weak or slow; it was able to keep up with us. Its body is covered in a light caramel-colored hair, or actually fur, from head to toe. Its face has both wolf features and man features, but my whole focus is on its snout. It growls and I am aware of its full set of teeth, the canines being the biggest and most deathly.

My mind goes to a children´s tale I once heard not long ago called ´Little Red Riding Hood´. I might as well be the main character but instead of a red hood, I am wearing a grey cloak.

The more I analyze the creature, the words of the story come to mind:

_"What a deep voice you have." _The creature barks as if it was saying, _"The better to greet you with."_

_"Goodness, what big eyes you have." _I see that its eyes are brown with a tinge of red around it. _"The better to see you with."_

_"And what big hands you have!" _I take a second look and can only imagine them going around my throat and ripping my head from my shoulders. _"The better to grab you with."_

Lastly,_ "What a big mouth you have." _The creatures gives a snarl, _"The better to eat you with!"_ and comes charging towards me.

I see the creature charging towards me, an apelike movement guiding its strides. The closer it gets my emotions start taking over me, a great anger rising in the pit of my stomach, I can´t help from snarling at it. However, that is its greatest weakness and one of my advantages. I charge towards him.

Our bodies are about to collide, but it suddenly reduces its speed and shows hesitation in its movement.

I take advantage of this and throw the first blow, hitting it right on the stomach and sucking the air out of it. I move quickly and throw a blow to its head, but it ducks, reading my move. With one of its hands, it pulls one of my legs, making me fall down to the ground. It jumps towards me, its jaw going straight towards my neck; I roll over to the side and manage to get out of its way.

It lands next to me—a lucky move—I get a hold of what I believe is its tail, and without a second thought, I get up. Using all my force, I lift the creature by its tail; its whole body hanging upside down, I make sure to keep it at arm's length.

Without a second thought, I smash it down to the ground, its head hitting first, a loud howl coming out of its mouth. The creature lands on its stomach. I move towards it, planning on putting my hands around its neck and tearing off its head, but it turns around in the nick of time and pushes me with its hind legs, throwing me quite a few feet, smashing at least three trees on the way, until one tree stops my trajectory. I hit my head hard, but I need to keep up; I am a dead vamp if I stop.

I charge again and it runs towards me. It knows it's strong and it's moving fast; let´s use that to our advantage. Just before we hit, I move to one side and actually make it trip with my own foot. So now, it is the one soaring through the air and ends up landing at the same tree that  
I did.

_Let´s see how good you are on the trees._ I climb one while the creature gets on its feet and I observe it from my current position. It growls and starts sniffing the air, looking around for any indication where I am located. It is not stupid; it growls, hoping to get some kind of answer back. I am not playing its game. It moves to my last known position, confused at not finding a fresh trail until it moves its head up and sees me. It jumps a great height and hangs from a branch not too far away from where I am. If it had been a werewolf like I pictured it, it wouldn´t have been able to hang from trees with paws. Having hands and opposable thumbs, it has the same abilities as I.

I move fast but it reads my motion and actually intercepts me and we both go down to the ground, hitting it with my back and the creature pinning me down. It growls at me, its revolting breath scenting all my breathing air, and I am pissed. It has its hands on mine, and with it being on top of me, the lower part of my body is no use; it has me complete immobilized, except for my head.

_Anytime, Alton. This should be your cue to get a hold of the creature. _ However, nothing.

_Well this is going to hurt._

I smash my head against its snout as hard as I can, getting it to loosen the hold on my hands. I push it off me as soon as I have a chance. My head pounds where it hit the creature and my moves are slower because of the pain, but it seems that I am not alone in that.

I get up at the same time as the creature and we keep eyeing each other; I wait to see what would be its next move. It howls and charges; I move in the nick of time, but this time it gets a hold of my cloak and makes me fall backwards.

I was so proud of the cloak, I earned it, but at this precise moment all I can think is_ STUPID CLOAK! _ I don´t have much time. I start to unbutton it and manage to get loose of it. I turn around, expecting to see the creature getting closer to me, ready to hit me, but there is nothing, not even my stupid cloak.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Chapter 3. The story behind a werewolf_**

**POV:**** Ivan the werewolf.**

Most people in their right mind see a full moon and different thoughts go through their mind; they can enjoy seeing the beauty of its round shape illuminating the night sky, competing for the spotlight with the starts and stealing it for five days with its shine. Others remember a phrase of a poem telling the world about its beauty and romance, of the way a woman's beauty is enhanced and brings a light to her eyes. A scientist would tell you the benefit of a full moon and could start telling you about the mysteries that they have discovered regarding ocean ties, earth's gravity, heck, even women having more babies during this specific phase. I am neither a romantic fool, a scientist, nor a common human…that is for sure.

For me it's simple; the full moon scares me to death. The simple knowledge of not being able to control yourself, letting your base instincts take over your body and the aftermath of what you´ve done, is like having a constant hangover; you remember flashes of what happened and it's up to you to create the story that allows you to sleep at night. However, it never has a happy conclusion; there is always a kill. If you are lucky, it's an animal, if not, pray to God that it was only one human.

This time I am still debating what to make of it, sure I don´t remember much, except the last part. Luckily, it was closer to sunrise and I am certain of what I saw. I remember running for a long time and following two very provoking scents, so that means he might not be alone.

I run as fast as I can until I face a river. I look at my surroundings and I believe is Lena River, not too bad then. I can follow it south and at some point I´ll get to Baikal Mountains, which is probably going to take me couple of hours. It is important that I report to Madame what happened; the old bat is not going to be happy to know that the leeches are still looking for us, and worse, that William is one of them.

The irony of life!

I pull the cloak around my neck to cover my naked body, the stench of it not doing great things for my mood, and pull the hood over my head. This will allow me to hide my scent from the leeches and any unwanted attention in case I come across a human; a buck naked man will make a couple of heads turn, and considering that it's winter in Siberia, I am sure as hell that it's going to raise some kind of alarm.

Getting into the water would erase my tracks, but I won´t be as fast, the current not helping with my speed either. In addition, knowing Madame, she would like us to capture the leeches and present them to her, for the usual reading and for Althea to work on them. I just don´t know how the timing is going to work out. Damn! First thing first, report and then let our leader decide how to proceed.

I put my hands inside the pockets and notice a piece of paper. I pull it out; I can almost laugh at the irony when I unfold it. I was hoping for some kind of journal or even a love letter, but this is _much better:_ a fucking map and not just any map, rather the answer to our questions. We can tell the rest that are out there to come and hide out in the areas that they´ve already searched, making sure they don´t run across any of us. It will buy us at least a century or two before they send their next quest. _Ha, ha, ha, what a bunch of morons_.

I keep up my pace, trying to be as quiet as I can and hoping that the sound of the river hides the sound of my steps. I try remembering the most that I can from the night; all I get are flashes. I am almost certain that there were others running after them as well. I believe one was Roland; he is able to keep up with the chase. Besides him, only Salvatore is capable of that. He can even outrun me, but I highly doubt that he is anywhere near here, Madame was clear to him about his orders.

William is lucky; knowing Salvatore, he wouldn´t have hesitated. Heck! Even as a human, I believe he would have challenged him. Enough of him, he doesn´t deserve the benefit of my thoughts.

Now the burning questions in my mind is`` _what_ the heck happened to William? When? How? And worst of all, why the hell is he working with those filthy Volturi? Even thinking of their name gives me a fucking headache. Madame said he was going to be safe where she sent him; I know she has been worried sick about him. Is she going to be surprised! And not in a good way.

_Crap!_ What a dilemma. I hate leeches; if it wasn´t for the stupid rule of Madame, I would probably be more than happy to track them and anxiously wait for the full moon to confront them, but now things have changed…William is one of them.

"Soldier, stop!" The order is given by a voice from behind me. It has a singsong quality to it that I know no human is capable of doing. I stop, not turning around. "Did you kill it?"

_Holy crap!_ I stay frozen in place. I nod my head with the hopes that he will leave.

"I was waiting for your signal to step in." The leech comes and stands next to me. I don´t dare to look at his face. I feel my adrenaline starting to raise; the closer it gets I feel my temper flaring, but the Volturi soldiers are known because of their strength and speed. Right at this moment I don´t stand a chance; with a more average vampire I might have a shot. I just shrug my shoulders, acting as if I am not giving any importance to what he said.

"You were lucky; seems that the werewolf was rather weak and a bad fighter." _EXCUSE ME!_ If there is something that separates me from most of the werewolves it's quite the opposite, and probably William is the same—we had the same teacher—that is why he is probably still alive after our confrontation.

Who is this fucking idiot? I am betting he didn´t even stick to watch the fight, let alone ´waiting for your signal to step in´ and if he was there, he would have known if William killed me or not. Never trust a fucking leech. I control myself and keep mum.

"The map?" He extents his hand; I am honestly having second thoughts on handing it over to him. Damn it, I should have memorized it. I pull it out of the cloak and hand it over to him, careful to keep my hand covered under the cloak. He takes it, probably not even looking at me. I hear him open it.

"You haven´t updated it?" His voice sounds angry. "Soldier, you don´t have a lot of responsibilities. If there is one thing I´ve always been clear about, it's that I like things done fast." I put my head down, trying to look humble and sympathetic, my feelings being the opposite; I am really holding back from hitting him.

The vampire starts laughing, a nerve-wracking laughter that brings no joy to me.

"Are you revaluating your life? Or were you thinking about fucking Heidi one last time before you die?" One thing is for sure_, I am _revaluating my life, but on a different note, who the hell is Heidi? Could it be possible that our dear old William finally decided to settle down? For my own sake, I don´t say a word and just nod my head.

"Well, if we are lucky we can track the other two werewolves during the daytime. If not, we should head back to Volterra and report to the master. We will get Jane and Alec to take care of those dogs." Unfortunately I know who Jane and Alec are; I'd heard some stories about them and the last thing that any of us want is for them to come near here. I could try to kill this bastard, but my odds are not good, at least not now. I wonder if I can keep up with this little game until sundown and have the lovely pleasure of killing him?

"Here is the map, soldier." He shoves the map back to me, hitting me in the chest with it. I can´t help myself from growling at him, my instincts overpowering me.

This actually makes him turn around and have a second look at me and I am finally able to see my opponent. _Fucking hell! _I probably look minuscule compare to him; the asshole stands probably at seven feet and he has a solid build. I thought that all vampires were good looking, but there is an exception to every rule and he is standing right in front of me. His skin has a white tint with the dark circles around those red uneven eyes that are analyzing me. His mouth is surrounded by an unkempt black beard. His head is bald and shining with the little crystals that only vampires present when the sun hits his skin.

There is a questioning look in his eyes while he looks at me.

I clenched my hands into fists, preparing to defend myself to the best of my ability, but keep my expression in place.

"What happened to you? You look younger." _What a moron_. He probably hasn´t even considered that he might be standing in front of the enemy. Well now, I´ll be nice and give the leech a little bit of credit. What are the chances of identical twins: one to be changed to a werewolf and the other a vampire? Probably one in a billion, and worse, meeting each other afterwards.

Seems that my good luck has not completely skipped out on me. Now we don´t look quite the same; I was turned at a younger age and my skin is tan now, a side effect of becoming a werewolf, unlike the vampires that become paler. I prefer my skin tan than white as snow any given day.

Lucky for me he is not able to see that yet, the hood of the cloak providing a shadow to my face and hiding the color of my eyes, which would be a dead giveaway as well, as would as the pumping of my heart that the noise from the river is generously hiding.

My features are not bad looking, but William's have been enhanced. _Stupid vampires!_

He takes a step back, capturing the whole picture of my body, trying to make sense of what he is seeing. His eyes stop at my feet.

"Where are your boots, soldier?" His growing suspicions were visible on his face.

_I´ll be damned._ What can I say that he would actually believe?

_The wolf bit them off…_no that won´t work; if that was the case, I would have taken the feet together with the boot.

_I needed to freshen my feet…_nope, their feet are already cold as hell.

"I don´t remember," I finally whisper.

"Did that fucking thing bite you?" He moves some steps back, as if I had a mortal disease or something.

_Ignorant._ If a werewolf bites a vampire, your physical appearance wouldn´t change. However, depending on the quantity of venom a werewolf is able to transmit in the bite, the vampire would start feeling a great deal of pain, the more venom the better. I´ve even heard that if it is a lot of venom, they don´t lose conscience, but they are somehow incapacitated by the pain. _Hmmmm… _Why didn´t I think of that before? _That_ is my way out of this shit.

I see his face changing, the confusion disappearing from it and substituted by a grin that is sending shivers down my spine.

"How about you lead the way today, William?" His voice is full of excitement. I don´t have much of a choice; I sigh, turn around, and start walking, hating every inch of not being able to keep my eye on the enemy. Shit, no more time to play dress up, I should act fast; it's now or never.

I hear a loud snarl from him. I turn and see his face changing completely as he charges at full speed towards me. He is about to hit me when I am able to side-step him and see him flying past me, the hood of the cloak falling off my head, leaving out in the open the sheer truth that I am not a vampire. He stops and turns around; he looks at me and, judging by his expression, I´ve just made his day.

"Who is afraid of the big bad wolf?" His voice is full of laughter. What a hypocrite; he knows that right now I am completely vulnerable. At least William was man enough to face me in my wolf form. _That just pisses me off._

"Seems that you are, fucking asshole," I growl and see him coming towards me. I brace myself for impact, preparing to start biting him as quickly and as many times as I possibly can, with the hopes of incapacitating him with pain before he incapacitates me permanently.

He is about to reach me when a figure coming out of nowhere hits him from the side and both of them end up on the ground fighting each other.

"Leave my brother alone!" I am able to distinguish William´s voice among the growling and snarling of the two figures that are fighting on the ground.


	4. Chapter 4

_**Chapter 4. The reunion**_

**POV:****Ivan the werewolf.**

I see both of them fighting; William is fast and strong, but the other one is stronger. William is putting up a good fight, though, anticipating the other's moves.

"Ivan, get the hell out of here!" he screams to me, taking advantage that the other one is recovering from his latest crash to a pine. "I´ll cover you."

It would be the smartest thing to do, but to what point? It would just get us both killed. As soon as he finishes or incapacitates William, he will go after me. Moreover, if I manage to survive, the options are limited; if the leech survives he will get Alec and Jane and then we will be in trouble. If William survives and decides to return where his boss is, he won´t be able to hide what just happened with that fucking ability to read minds, finalizing with the same previous outcome. There is only one choice.

_"_Why do you get to have all the fun, my dear brother?_" _ I see the exasperated look that he has always given me when I decide to not follow his plan.

"We were taught to share," he sighs.

I hear a snarl coming from the leech and his heavy steps coming towards me. I keep my eyes on William, challenging him to come and rescue his older brother. There is indecision in his face, but he overcomes whatever doubt he has and heads towards the leech.

"William, tackle him!" I might not be in my most powerful form, but I have far more than a human's speed and strength. William follows my order and tackles him. The leech falls face first, not putting his hands in front to break his fall. William grabs his legs, not allowing him to stand up. I reach them and place a knee on his back, trying to keep his torso down, but it feels as if I am on top of an angry bull, trying to push himself up, so I put my full force on him and work as fast as I can.

I grab one of his arms and bite his hand; I hear him scream in pain, not that I care. I linger there, making sure that my venom spreads to his system; I am certain that is working because his screaming gets worse. I am lucky that his hands are covered in scars; he won´t be able to tell apart which one is mine once this ordeal is over. Immediately I taste the bitter flavor of biting a vampire, but I am not done yet.

I drop that hand and swiftly move to the other and do the same; I can see that is working, he is no longer fighting to stand up. When I am done, I run to the river and rinse my mouth, hoping that the water can remove the disgusting taste out of it. I spit the water and repeat the process several times until finally it's not as bad.

I turn and see the leech in a fetal position, his hands close to his chest in a protective way.

"What did you do?" William is no longer holding him down, but he is staying close by, not taking his eyes from him.

"I gave him a little taste of hell." I could almost swear that he suppressed a chuckle, but he quickly composes himself.

"I should kill you." William looks defeated; it seems that I wasn´t the only one thinking on the probable outcomes. "Or you should kill me." He finally looks at me, those red eyes a clear indication of his now true nature, as did I; we both had to say goodbye to our mother's beautiful blue eyes.

I decide to ignore his question.

"What the hell happened to you?" Being one hundred percent conscious that he is actually a vampire is still hard to process.

"I should be asking you the same, a Child of the Moon?" Ugh! I don´t like that term, it makes us sound so innocent, when in reality we are as wild as they come.

"We prefer the term werewolf, but it is a long story," I cut him off; he looks at me with disbelief.

"You know what, don´t tell me; it's better that way." He puts his hands up, indicating for me to stay quiet.

"Afraid that your boss will pull the truth from your thoughts?" He looks in surprise at me.

Fucking vampires, so ignorant and they think they can kill us all. Mother Nature was pretty darn unfair when she allowed some vampires to have a special ability. If we had that and weren't as feral as we are during the full moon, we would be winning the war; lucky for us Althea joined our side.

Madame was right, the more we know of our enemy the better chances we will have of surviving. Over the centuries, the werewolves have been able to get their hands on a few vampires, probably in the same way that I just did, and make them spill the beans on any information related to them. After they finalize the questioning, Madame verifies if the leech would be missed in the world or by the Volturi; if not, they would kill it, otherwise Althea would work her magic with the leech. I was never able to see any of it considering that it was centuries ago, but just as any werewolf I´ve been taught about it.

"Then you should leave me and start looking for a good hiding place." His face falls.

"I don´t think so, little brother." Again, he gives me that look, which I decide to ignore. "If anything, _you_ are coming with me; your friend _should_ tag along."

"For what? Are you planning on having us over for dinner?" I look at him and chuckle.

"If by having you over for dinner you mean as the main course, it's an option I am willing to consider," he glares at me, "but I am certain your friend has a terrible aftertaste, probably not good for my digestion." I make the motion of rubbing my stomach.

"Really, Ivan? You are planning on joking considering the seriousness of the situation?" He has always been too preoccupied with rules and shit; we have never seen eye to eye in almost anything.

"If life gives you lemons you should make lemonade," I walk over to where he is, "but seriously, you are coming with me."

"I don´t think so." He stays put in place.

"It's not like we have all day to discuss this, William, either you come with me now, while the sun is still up or let's schedule a rematch for later in the afternoon, it's your call." It's not the option that I am looking form but I need to say something that will make him want to follow me.

"I´m sorry, Ivan, we can´t, it's against the law," he answers me, his face hard. He has always been too fucking attached to the law; when he was younger, he was so afraid of disappointing Father—what an irony…if Father could see him now—seems that I finally became Daddy´s favorite son. Who knew that day would finally come? Not that I was _ever_ looking for the title.

"Suit yourself, little brother, but I am sure Madame is going to give me hell for not bringing you in to say hello to her." His eyes widen after hearing me.

"Ivan, what the hell? Stop joking!" I can see that he is not happy about it; he is probably thinking that I can´t be serious about anything.

"Brother, right now I couldn´t be more serious; so start moving that cold stone ass of yours and help me drag this low life jerk. Time is precious."

I am not planning to carry the leech, so I grab one of his legs and start dragging him instead, not giving a damn if he's comfortable or if some rocks might hit him every now and then. He is whimpering with pain, holding both his hands.

I walk all the way south, not caring to look back. William will come, it's just a matter of him getting it through his thick skull that I don´t mean any harm, at least for the moment.

During my walk over to the mountain, I check on the soldier every now and then and give him a quick dose of my venom just to make sure that he is in pain enough to not attack me. I don´t plan on making it this far, just to have this son of a bitch kill me.

I am able to see the mountain standing not too far from where I am; I look up to the sky and see that the sun is not all the way up, probably near noon. Seems that I made good time, considering that I am dragging some dead weight.

I know it's hard to see the castle that keeps some of us safe during most of the month, however when it's that time of the month we spread out, though not too far, in order to hunt and avoid killing any humans that live nearby. Most of us like to go to desolates areas, where we know it's hard to come across a town or people, so that we are forced to hunt animals, but it's no guarantee.

I hear some steps behind me, the wind carrying the scent to me.

"What have you done, Ivan?!" His tone of voice is furious.

"I´ve not done nothing willingly, plus if I do recall correctly, Roland, you were also tracking them up to a certain point." I turn and see a surprised expression on his face. He is completely clothed; seems he has been for a while.

"So it did happen?" He runs his hand through his hair, looking confused. "Damn it! Good thing you got a hold of him." He looks again down; I see recognition in his eyes when he sees the leech. His jaw tightens and he clenches his hands into fists. He closes his eyes and starts breathing in and out, trying to calm himself with not much success.

"The other one should be arriving shortly," I actually say to try to distract him. I´ve never seen him like this before; he usually is the calm one besides Madame, both of them being the voice of reason among our kind. Madame might be our leader, but Roland is her advisor and her eyes in some matters.

This actually makes him open his eyes and look at me, his mood improving fractionally.

"There is another one?" His voice is a growl. "What makes you think that he will come here willingly? He is probably running back to Volterra to inform the Volturi." He comes next to me, grabs the vampire's other leg and starts helping me to drag him inside the castle.

"I have a feeling that William won´t be able to resist coming for his friend." Roland stops walking as soon as I utter the words and looks straight to me.

"Ivan, stop it. Madame will be furious if she hears you!" His tone is full of warning.

"I couldn´t be any more serious." I start pulling the idiot through the staircase, not caring at all how many times his head bangs against the hard stone steps. From my point of view, the stairwell is not long enough for what this idiot deserves.


	5. Chapter 5

_**Chapter 5. Perfect Balance**_

**POV:****William.**

I follow Alton and Ivan´s tracks and end up at the base of a mountain; at first sight I don´t know exactly where they went until I realize that near the mountain's base there is a stairwell, and at the end of it is an entrance to a small castle. I was not aware of anything there, only the snow marks on the ground as my guide to the entrance, its stone color the same as the mountain's and the snow so high up that you can´t see if there is any actual wall protecting it.

In addition, its location is hidden between small elevations and some big boulders, which makes me, wonder if the stones are there for the whole purpose of hiding it and that its location wasn´t chosen by accident.

I approach silently, still trying to make up my mind of what to do. The smart and logical thing to do would be to return to Volterra as fast as I can, tell the master their current location, and assemble a group of guards to come and hunt them down, before they decide to move away. But I can´t; as much as I want to please the master, I feel a stronger pull towards here. I am blaming Ivan for that, probably because of our family connection.

"Seem that Ivan was not wrong." The voice behind me takes me by surprise, making me snarl at the figure that was hiding on the branches of a big pine tree; he is dressed with a white cloak that serves him as camouflage against the snow of the branches. Judging by the smell of kerosene, I know that he's a werewolf. I get down in a crouch, realizing that I am out in the open with nowhere to hide.

The werewolf comes down and lands gracefully on the ground, his gaze never leaving mine.

"I won´t attack you, William, unless you attack me." He puts his hands up in a signal that he comes peacefully. I take a good look at his face and I find it familiar, but my memories are fuzzy, like the memories that I have of Ivan; I know that I knew him as a human.

"Roland?" I am not certain if I got the name right. He smiles and nods.

After Mother´s tragedy and Father´s disappearance, Ivan and I didn´t exactly know what to do. We had an estate and a house to run; we were old enough to inherit, but the memories haunted us. Roland appeared out of nowhere with a proposal to get us out of there and start a new life elsewhere. I took the option and followed Roland's instructions; Ivan decided to stay behind and try to look for Mother's killer. I never heard of Ivan ever again…until now.

"William, you´ve changed." His expression is full of disappointment but not of surprise. It seems that he has been expecting me.

I stay quiet, but rise from my crouched position.

"Let us go inside, William. Who knows what your brother has been up to." He motions for me to move forward. It seems that I no longer have the element of surprise; I might as well indulge my older brother into meeting with Madame, so I start following the track of footprints while Roland walks behind me.

I enter the castle door, trying to keep my head cool and my emotions in place. The roof of the castle is not very tall; there aren´t any decorations on it, just stone walls and a couple of torches here and there, giving the hallway a creepy feeling to it, the spider webs not helping. At first sight, the place looks abandoned; nobody would give a second thought to investigate any further if they found it.

I keep walking forward, hearing our footsteps echoing through the halls. We reach the other end of the castle and to my great surprise there is nothing in here.

"Turn to your left," Roland´s voice says without any emotion. I do as told and find myself facing the wall. I don´t know what Roland is doing behind me but I hear him grunting as if lifting something heavy.

"Need some help?" I offer, hearing that he is having trouble moving whatever he is doing.

"The less you know the better." He throws something on the floor, a loud clank resounding, but keeps on moving around while I stare at the wall.

"William, you might not like what I am about do, but this is for our own protection and yours." I don´t like the sound of what Roland is proposing and I begin to turn toward him. "Stop!"

"Roland?"

"I am only going to blindfold you, William." I don´t like the idea of losing one of my senses, not that I have many choices.

Roland starts pulling my shirt and guides me, the echoes of my footsteps louder because of my hearing sharpening. He is a good guide, making sure that I don´t walk into anything, letting me know if there are some steps coming near or when to crouch.

At first, I try to memorize the way in, but it has become pointless; I feel completely lost. I am aware of the smell of werewolf becoming stronger the deeper that we move and hear a couple of not very nice comments here and there, but Roland quiets them down.

We finally come to a stop; I am able to smell Alton´s scent, meaning he is close by, plus two additional werewolves.

"Close the door." A gentle female voice is the one that speaks the words, and she sounds somehow familiar; I think back in time, trying to pinpoint who that voice belongs to. I am certain I heard it when I was human. _Think, William! The answer is at the tip of your tongue._

"It has been a long time, William." I hear a chair scraping the floor and footsteps coming towards me, not a single hesitation with them. The smell, although different from Roland´s and Ivan´s, has the same tinge of kerosene in it, a clear indication of a werewolf.

"We are not sure we can trust him, Madame." Roland's voice comes from behind me, a note of worry in it.

"Pish-posh, Roland, if he wanted to attack us he would have done it before." Her tone is light and filled with humor; there is a clear Russian accent in her voice, even though she is using English words.

She stops a few feet in front of me. "Now, I am going to touch your face, young one." I know the words are for me.

"Madame, please be careful." Roland is now next to her, his steps swift and silent, his voice full of concern. However, I am now distracted by the name _Madame—_I remember Ivan telling me about her in the woods—together with her voice, the memories are easier to access. I´d only met her once when I was a human.

A hand starts moving over my face, stopping at first when the cold sensation of my skin hits the warmth of hers. I hear her holding her breath, as if it took her by surprise; she quickly recovers and continues breathing normally, her hand going slowly up and down my face, studying and memorizing it.

"Roland, please remove the blindfold; it is only fair if I can see him that he can also," she says without stopping. I hear Roland sigh in defeat and a few seconds later, I am able to see the person that I remember in my memories.

Standing right in front of me is an older woman, or at least that is the first impression you get when you see her white hair, however there isn´t a single wrinkle on her face. Her features are delicate and exquisite, a beautiful small nose that matches her small lips that are smiling towards me. Her eyes close, as they will always remain, considering that there is no reason for her to open them, since they are empty, but somehow you know that she is able to see you.

She is now dressed in a very simple gown, a contrast to the last time that we met not too long ago. Her hair is now pulled up, making her features look severe, but the few things I remember is the kindness that she showed towards me. One thing that remains unchanged is the ribbon that goes around her neck; I am now able to distinguish the scar that she is covering with it.

"William, finally." She smiles towards me; I think that I hear relief in her voice. She comes closer and wraps her arms around me. She takes me off guard and I stay frozen in place, not knowing exactly what to do. I look around and see a guard look at Roland; next to him is Alton on the floor, whimpering and holding both his hands, not looking at us.

"I told you, little brother, that Madame was going to be glad to see you." Ivan is standing behind me; I turn and see that he is guarding a door with a smirk on his face. I can´t help from rolling my eyes at him.

Madame releases me and looks at my face.

"I am so sorry, William, I didn´t know they were so close to the place where I sent you." Her face is full of regret.

My mind goes back to the only encounter that we previously had. After following Roland´s instructions, I got into the carriage and traveled to France where our godmother wanted to meet with us. Never in my life did I hear Mother or Father mention to us that we had a godmother but at that time, I needed a way out of the house; a small letter with Mother's handwriting was enough to convince me. When I arrive, Roland was there expecting me, next to him Madame, dressed so elegantly it was hard to believe that Mother and her had anything in common. She never explained how she met Mother or Father, but the kindness that she showed towards me was enough to convince me; you could tell that she loved her.

In that brief meeting that we had I recall two things: the first is the proposal she made to me, to move to Italy near Tuscany to take care of a vineyard that she owned. The second thing was the way she was playing with a small balance that was sitting in front of her, putting weights on it with her hand moving it up and down.

I never asked what she was doing; my interest was in knowing the details of the proposal and expectations of this new task.

As if they knew that I was going to accept the proposal, everything was arranged and by the time our meeting ended, I was on my way to Italy to manage a vineyard. I didn´t have any idea of how to do it, but it provided me the distraction that I needed at that time.

I spent enough time to know the whereabouts of the land and the task, and I provided constant updates of the situation with the vineyard to my godmother, during all that time hoping to hear news from Ivan or expecting him to arrive any minute. Those minutes turned to hours, then days and weeks until it finally became years with no news from him or Father. I thought of them as dead.

Seven years I waited until I finally gained my courage to go and look for them, back to England; the vineyard was finally producing at a steady rate and the right people on the job allowed me to look for the rest of my family.

A small stop on the way back home in Volterra was what it took for all my plans, hopes, and dreams to be shattered. The most beautiful woman that I´d ever seen fixed her intriguing red eyes on me, a captivating smile making me forget every single though that I´d ever had and replace them by the need to please her. I followed her, together with another group of men, inside a building, not caring where we were going as long as she was the one guiding us. To my great surprise, she asked me to stay behind for a more intimate tour while the rest walked inside another room. It didn´t take long for her to come out and direct me to another room; afterwards I started feeling my body on fire, my heart accelerating to an nonhuman pace, the fire running through my veins burning my insides. I know I was screaming but to no avail; I could do nothing about it.

The pain, after what seem like an eternity, started to dim, my senses became alert, and when I opened my eyes the beautiful redhead was waiting for me, not an ounce of regret in her eyes. She was pleased by what I'd become, but I didn´t care what she thought since there was only one thing on my mind…blood, human blood, for I was no longer a human, but a monster, a vampire.

My mind is back to the present, my thoughts full of confusion. Should I be mad? If I had stayed in England, I would most likely still be human, right? I turn and look at Ivan, his features younger than mine; he stayed and he is now a werewolf. It seems that no matter what decision I made, our destiny had always been to become monsters.

"How long?" I turn and look at Ivan; my question takes him by surprise. "How long after I left England were you changed?" I clarify.

He stops looking at me and instead focuses on the floor; there is indecision on his face.

"Just a few hours after you left." I hear Madame's voice at the back of my head. "Roland and I wanted to get you both out of there as soon as possible—we knew there was potential risk—but as always, Ivan doesn´t like to follow orders." Her voice is now severe.

Ivan finally looks up.

"Mother was right; Ivanka was up to no good." There is a joking tone in his voice, but sadness in his eyes. I vaguely remember her; she was father´s friend that stayed with us for a few weeks, and mother said she was a flirt.

She kept going after me; I wasn´t interested, but I couldn´t get that through her head or Ivan's. I could see my brother getting jealous for an unjustified reason. "The little bitch had a nasty little secret that she decided to share with me."

"Language," I find myself saying aloud and correcting him, as I had always done when we were human. There is an amused expression on Ivan's face.

I hear Madame chuckling behind me, which actually makes me turn. She is now sitting at a desk that is located at the back of the room and in front of her is the balance, the same one that I saw when I was still human; she is putting all the weights on one side.

"Let´s see what the future has in store for you." Ivan´s voice is next to me, but I don´t look at him. I am surprised to see the results of the balance, all the weights on one side, but it stays on perfect balance.

"What exactly do you mean, Ivan?" I am lost seeing the balance move rapidly, up and down; sometimes it's just marginal, others it's obvious the change of direction. All this time Madame is not even touching it but just sensing it.

"Will Aro notice if William never returns to Volterra?" Madame speaks up, her voice loud and clear. The balance move straight down.

"That is a yes." I hear Ivan´s voice next to me, his tone sad.

"Is William going to be a threat for the werewolves?" Madame ignores our comments and continues asking the balance. The balance immediately goes up; I am certain nobody changed weights or touched it.

"That is a no." This time Ivan´s voice sounds happier. I dare to turn and see a small smile on his lips. I hear Madame's sigh of relief at the balance's answer.

"Is William going to be part of the Volturi guard for as long as he lives?" This actually makes me turn and see the answer. As much as I hate Alton and don´t like the way that Heidi makes me her little puppet, I like being a member of the Guard. It's something that I am proud of achieving. I have always liked following orders and rules; it is as if I was born to be a soldier…or at least that is what Mother used to call me…her little soldier.

This time the answer on the balance is not clear; I see hesitation. At first it starts moving down; I remember that it means yes. I feel relief; however it doesn´t stay there. Slowly but surely it moves its way up, finally stopping when it is all the way up.

Ivan chuckles when it finally stops; I don´t look at him. Each seconds that passes, I hope to see it fall down, but it stays up there.

"Something to look forward to, brother," Ivan says, making me furious. I turn and look at him.

"You don´t get it, Ivan, I like being a part of them," my voice expressing my feelings, "and if I get to live a long time I'd rather spend it doing something that I want."

"I can maybe at some point accept that you´ve become a leech, but I won´t accept the fact that you are willingly and happily working with them, especially to destroy us." He walks up to me, our height the same, his eyes that strange brown coloring with the tinge of red looking at mine. He is still wearing the cloak he stole from me and pulls a piece of paper out of it, my handwriting indicating the areas that we have searched.

I feel a cold shiver run through my body. There is a part of me telling me to rip his throat and kill him in order to please the master; another part, one that I haven´t felt in a long time, tells me that deep down I love him and that I can´t do that, no matter what species he or I belong to.

"Ivan," I hear Roland´s footsteps approaching us, "what are you holding?"

"We knew they would search for us; here are the areas that they´ve already covered. " He lets go of the map and hands it over to Roland without taking his eyes off me. "We might want to tell Father that he is in for a surprise if he decides to stay where he is currently."

"That is enough, Ivan." Madame´s voice is severe but determined.

I am not able to hear more; I look at Ivan, hoping to see an amused or smug expression, but he is dead serious.

"Father also had a dirty little secret." Ivan starts walking towards me, but Roland gets in the way, stopping him from coming any closer, and it's a good thing. I am barely controlling myself from hitting him. "I always suspected there was something strange with him, leaving at least a week every month to who knows what inexplicable trip, always alone. I thought he had another family; I was not far off, he had a mistress, she likes to look upon us and make fun of us every single night. Right, Lady Moon!" There is a lot of spite in his words; he looks up to the ceiling as if he was talking straight to the moon.

"You are lying!"

"I wish I were. He lied to his sons and to his wife." He starts shaking his head and looks at me.

"He never lied to Olive. Actually, he was upfront with her since the moment he declared his love to her." This actually makes Ivan´s head turn towards Madame, who was the one that spoke. I follow his lead and find Madame still sensing changes on the balance, this time not asking her questions aloud. "Your mother was really special, so brave; she would have done anything for him and for both of you."

My mind goes backwards again, to a soft laughter that could always light up my heart. I may not remember a lot from my days when I was a human, but I do remember her. She was like a porcelain doll, with delicate and elegant features: long lashes that framed her beautiful deep-blue eyes, high cheekbones that were alive with her rosy cheeks, her nose thin and delicate, her upper lip thin and lower fuller that would spread in a beautiful smile, her long curly light-caramel hair that she liked to wear down, no matter what society dictated.

We didn´t inherit much of her looks, only the coloring in our hair, skin, and eyes, most of which has been lost in both our transformations. We used to resemble our father more, our stronger and bigger build, not to mention our speed and strength that was always superior to most humans…huh? Seems that I finally know the reason behind that.

"Well, Madame, being too close to the unnatural was what got her killed!" Ivan is screaming his head off; I can feel the pain that he is feeling, his words stabbing me as if he was actually plunging a knife right down to my heart. "Father should have known better and left us behind."

"Father was the one who killed her?" My respiration is growing faster and the pain starts to transform into fury. Not only was Ivan telling me that Father is a werewolf but that he could have been the possible murderer.

"No, William, he didn´t, he couldn´t have," Madame speaks gently. I look at her, my anger not dimming but not growing either. "A werewolf can´t kill the object of his affection or a family member, it doesn´t matter if it is human or a werewolf. You boys and she were never in any danger from him, not even in his wolf form."

"I find that impossible to believe, Madame." I can clearly remember how Ivan was when he was in his wolf form: utterly savage.

"I agree," I hear Ivan´s voice, "I attacked William last night, Madame."

"And yet he is still alive." Madame´s voice is passive.

"It was not by chance," I speak up.

"If you ask me, and this is just a theory." I turn and realize that it's Roland who's the one that is speaking. He is still holding Ivan from walking off. "Your vampire venom might have confused him."

"It's hard to know what exactly occurred or could happen," Madame interrupts, "it's not like we have ever seen this situation in the past." She smiles a little at this. "Believe it or not, I would rather not see the final result."

"He wouldn´t be able to keep up with me," Ivan says quietly. Roland looks at him reproachfully.

I decide to keep quiet and go along with it; if I discuss I will be falling into his little game, just like Alton, and honestly I don´t have any intention to face him at nighttime.

I turn and look at Madame; she is back working with the balance, keeping to herself the questions that she is making.

"You know it was a vampire that kill…" Ivan starts up again.

"IVAN, enough!" Madame´s voice is full of authority and her face is looking towards Ivan. "That is an order!" It seems that Madame still has a fighting bone in her body. The way that she is looking at Ivan actually makes me shiver.

"Understood, Madame." Ivan´s voice is strained. Did I hear right? Was Ivan actually going to comply with what Madame ordered?

"Ivan, it would be wise if you left." I turn and realize that Roland is the one who spoke and he's walking Ivan out of the room.

"That won´t be necessary, Roland." Madame is back in her chair, the balance is moving faster. "I need him to be present."

"Are you certain, Madame?" Roland says with a worried look on his face.

"Seems that their fates are more intertwined than I imagined," she chuckles while sensing the balance with her hand.

I look down and realize that it's not moving anymore; it stopped at a perfect balance.

"What was the question, Madame?" Ivan says while approaching the table.

Madame is not able to answer the question; a loud growl interrupts her. I turn where the sound is coming from and see Alton running towards Madame at full speed.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Chapter 6. Hide and Seek_**

**POV:**** Ivan**

Everything happens so fast, it is hard to believe what my eyes are seeing. I am looking at Madame and her precious little balance and the next moment the stupid vampire Alton is charging towards her. Wasn´t he whimpering a couple of minutes ago from the pain in the corner of the room? Or has all this time been an act?

I start running towards her, my instinct telling me that it's better if he kills me instead of her. The vow starts acting up; once you are turned into a werewolf, you make the vow: no werewolf can kill our leader and everybody needs to protect her. In return, she promises to keep us safe and protect us. So far Madame has been able to keep her promise after the dark times when the Volturi killed our previous leader, and now it's my time to protect her.

I hear Roland´s running as well, but he won´t be able to make it in time, him being further away.

I jump right in front of her, ready to receive the impact of the vampire falling on top of me; to my surprise, William is the one stopping Alton and punching him in the face, making him backtrack some steps.

"Get Madame out of here!" he says without turning to look at us. I turn to get a hold of Madame, but the old bat is no longer there. What the hell? I look towards Roland, hoping that he already did what William asked us, but with no luck. He is actually running out of the room with his arms empty.

"Always knew you were a traitor," I hear Alton saying, probably looking at William. "You are going to be the first one to die."

"Time to see who is a better fighter then." William´s voice is loud.

I start running through the room, looking for Madame. I knew she could be fast, but she is outdoing herself.

The room that we are in starts becoming darker; I look around and I am finally able to see her. She is running at full speed, extinguishing the torches that light up the room. If I recall correctly, vampire and werewolf sight are excellent, even at night, but we honestly have been put in a position where there isn´t any kind of light. We are, after all, deep inside a cavern, not a single ray of light illuminating the room; it has become pitch black.

"What the hell?" I hear Alton´s voice, not with the same certainty like when he was threatening William.

"Welcome to my world, monster." Madame´s voice resonates and echoes through the room, making it hard to pinpoint her exact location. "I challenge you to a game of hide and seek."

I stay quiet and decide not to move.

"Come out, come out wherever you are." Alton´s voice expresses a playful attitude, sending a cold feeling through my spine. He, not being familiar with the room, it's easy to pinpoint his exact location.

"It's your turn to make a move." Madame´s voice is close by; this time it's easy to know where she is. Heavy steps start to resonate in the room, followed by crashing sounds and someone hitting the floor hard. "Oh! Watch your step, my dear." There is laughter in Madame's voice. She is obviously enjoying the attack.

"You will be sorry!" Again, the heavy steps are running towards the voice, followed by the sound of fighting and somebody being hit. I can´t take it anymore; I need to protect Madame. I am about to get up but the cloak that I am wearing is being pulled backwards.

"Stay down." William's voice is right next to me, his voice less than a whisper, but not low enough. The heavy steps move towards us this time.

I feel somebody pushing me, then there is the sound of whooshing wind in my ear and, shortly after, a crash. Most likely, he crashed against the wall, considering that it was the only thing available to make him stop.

"William, Ivan, leave the room!" Madame´s order is clear but _the hell with it_, the vow is more powerful than her order. I don´t move from where I am crouching and probably neither is William, since I don´t hear any footsteps.

I stay put, waiting to see the vampire's next move, not daring to even take a breath.

The door of the room opens; an indirect light from a torch in the hall barely lights the room, but that is all it takes. I see William; he is on the other side of the desk, also crouching. He is facing towards the wall where Alton crashed. I move my head towards that direction and see Alton´s face with a big grin on it, looking straight towards me.

"Boo!" His voice has a deadly tone to it and a murderous look is upon his face. He has been waiting for this opportunity and jumps towards me. I start moving towards the door, but I am not as fast as Alton. Before I know it he is on my back. I try to strike him with my elbow, but I am not able to connect with his face.

My back starts feeling the pain of his teeth digging into my neck; I howl in pain. I desist my attempts at running and instead decide to let myself fall backwards, hoping that my weight will manage to create some pain and cause Alton to loosen his bite.

I haven´t even reached the floor when I sense that William is by my side; he is hitting Alton right on the head.

The punch that William delivers to Alton does the trick; his nasty mouth is no longer in my neck. I feel somebody grabbing my arms, preventing me from hitting the floor and pulling me out of Alton´s grasp. I am able to see her face: Madame. She pulls me with all her force and actually manages to throw me all the way to the other side of the room. I am temporarily safe; unfortunately, she isn´t.

William is not able to hold Alton down and he starts running towards Madame. He gets a hold of her; one of his arm around her torso, the other around her shoulders. I am not fast enough; I can see him putting pressure on his hold and hear bones breaking. _Damn it!_

Madame does not utters a word; instead, I hear Alton screaming again and releasing her. William reaches Alton, who is no longer defending himself; he is grabbing his arm, a painful look on his face. William makes him fall and pins him down on the ground.

My focus is no longer on the threat but on Madame, who is down on her knees bending over, one of her arms around her torso and the other on the floor, holding her from falling.

"Madame!" I run to her side; she is gasping with pain.

"When are you going to learn to follow orders? Seems that we still have a long way to go then." She looks at me with a murdering glance.

"I couldn´t leave you behind…the vow." My voice comes out nervously; she starts shaking her head and chuckles, her anger diminishing.

"Help me up." She raises the arm that was holding her from falling; I gently pull her up to her feet.

"I should go and fetch Roland so that he can check you." I start walking towards the closest chair, but I feel her pulling me towards where Alton is.

"William, move." Her voice is once again full of authority. I see that William is having his doubts about doing as told, but as usual, he follows the order.

"STUPID LEECH!" She kicks him in the stomach once.

One might thing that Madame is a fragile older woman; well, I am betting Alton can vow that she is neither, especially after how she just manage to kick the air out of his system with that single blow.

"Madame," a male voice from the other side of the room interrupts her: Roland.

Madame sighs and slowly retreats from Alton. As soon as she is out of reach, William goes back to his previous position and pins down Alton.

"I am sorry, but he had it coming." She starts walking slowly towards her desk, a small smile on her lips. I run, anticipating her needs, raise the chair from the floor and put it back to where it belongs. When I turn around, Roland is already by her side, carefully checking her, a worried look on his face. I could almost swear there is also guilt on it.

"I am all right, friend, the bones are back in place," Madame says. Roland looks at her, not believing a word of what she is saying.

"I should have stayed, we could have avoided this." He looks at her with concern and something more; it makes me remember the way that Father looked at Mother. I never notice it before—everybody knows they are good friends—however, the way he just looked at her makes me think there might be something more than just a simple friendship.

"And miss the opportunity of kicking him in the gut?" Her face is pointing towards his; this time there is a mischievous smile on her lips. Her expression is drained from the pain but somehow she manages to look younger.

"Madame," His tone reproachful but I see amusement in his face, "a kick in the gut won´t solve anything."

"You are right, he deserves much worse, considering what he did to both our families." Her voice breaks at this. I look at Roland; his face falls completely and he turns back towards Alton, a dark look in his eyes. "Unfortunately, the balance has spoken; he needs to live. William won´t be able to account his disappearance."

They both start walking towards her desk, his arm wrapped around her body, helping her to keep her balance. I get out of their way and Roland helps Madame sit down on her chair. Her hands go immediately up, looking for the scale.

"Here, Madame." Roland puts it in front of her.

"Where were we?" She moves a piece of hair that got loose during the fight behind her ear and sits up straight in her chair.

"We were about to leave." A female voice coming from the entrance makes me turn.

Reclining in the door with her arms crossed on her chest is a small figure, looking reproachfully at us, with the strangest eyes that I have ever seen, a blue sapphire so deep and intense that they can look right into your mind and if she wants, make you temporarily forget who you are.

"Althea, thank you for joining us." Madame's voice is courtly; her face, however, momentarily falls, like the last time she said goodbye to William. "Can you give me one hour, I need to discuss some things with William and Ivan."

My mind goes back to the scale being in complete balance; if she is making this requirement, she has something big to tell us.

Althea shakes her head.

"Madame, we need to put some distance from here before nighttime to avoid the risk of your kind coming across their scent later in the night." Althea´s voice is worried; I look at Madame and see her nodding.

"Then only a few minutes, please, Althea," Roland speaks up, stepping in for Madame. "I´ll instruct the rest to start moving south to put more distance between them and us. They won´t go that way; they already checked it." Roland comes close to Althea and shows her William´s map. Hard to believe her eyes light up as soon as she sees it.

I turn and see that William is holding down Alton, but his face is looking toward the map.

Althea takes the map and starts looking it over quickly. She looks up and her eyes finally meet William's; I could swear there is amusement in her face.

"You look like Ivan." Her eyes keep going from William to me and then back again. "Are you related?"

"He is my brother, Althea," I speak up, "my twin brother."

She comes closer and looks at William.

"You are handsome," she whispers to him and I see William rolling his eyes. I know she is doing this just to piss me off; the worst part is that it's working.

"I beg to differ." I see her smile spreading as soon as she hears me. _Damn, I should know better! _ Madame starts chuckling.

Althea puts both of her hands on William´s face and I know she is getting some kind of reading from it. It seems that she has something in mind besides pissing me off.

"Fine, Madame, I´ll concede with just a few minutes." She gets up and rolls the maps in her hands. "I´ll need to make some adjustments to the map."

"No!" William starts to get up but he sees Alton moving and goes back to his previous spot. "Don´t modify it."

"I´ll just mark this area as checked, keep both of you from stopping for a visit tonight." She starts heading towards the door.

"I can´t accept that," William's voice is loud, Althea stops and looks at him, "It feels like I would be breaking the rules."

"What rule is that exactly?" Her voice is full of false innocence.

"Dealing with the Children of the Moon." William´s voice is full of conviction.

"Oh, darling! I believe you did that the moment you stopped Alton from killing your brother." There is laughter in Althea´s voice.

William's face falls completely after what Althea said. It seems that the soldier is not doing his job properly and he is not happy about having that fact rubbed in his face. I could almost laugh at this. He composes quickly.

"If there is any consolation, you can make a deal with me instead. If you want?" She shrugs her shoulders.

"Aren´t you…?" He stops as soon as she starts shaking her head. William stays speechless.

"I´ll take that as a yes then." She starts walking towards the door and stops when she reaches me, looking up at me. "Take the cloak off, you are stinking it up." Her face is serious and she is almost glaring at me.

If she wants to piss me off, two can play that game.

"Althea, if you want to see me naked, don´t beat around the bushes, just say it aloud and I´ll oblige." I give her a wicked smile. Madame sighs as soon as she hears me.

Althea is now definitely glaring at me now, but she bites her lower lip and then gives me a fake smile.

"If you want to remain inconspicuous from them, things need to be as close as they can to last night, so, I am willing to make _you_ a trade; I´ll wear your brother's cloak and try to eliminate your scent, in the meantime you can wear mine. I am sure it will cover the important areas and avoid the disappointment." She starts taking off her white cloak.

My mind starts doing the math; her 4 foot three inches in height is nothing compared to my 6 foot 3 inches. Her cloak will look ridiculous on me.

"She is right, Ivan," Madame's voice is full of amusement, "take it off."

"I´d rather be naked than wearing that cloak." I give a disgusted look at her cloak that she is now offering me.

"Ivan, you know the rules, we will be heading south soon, so wear it," Roland says while taking the cloak from Althea and handing it over to me. AAAARRGGGHHH, she will pay for this!

"No peeking, Althea," I say while I start removing William´s cloak.

"Wouldn´t even dream of it." I can´t see her face; Roland is blocking my view. I quickly replace the cloak and realize that my math was right; her cloak reaches my mid-thigh, my legs completely exposed. I hear Roland trying to disguise a chuckle with a cough.

"I´ll get to work, Madame, but I am serious; as soon as I am done, we need to start moving." She walks past me, William´s cloak around her neck. She is grabbing the lower part of it so that it doesn´t drag on the floor.

She stops as soon as she gets to the door. "Oh, Ivan, by the way, nice legs."

_She will be getting hell after this, especially after hearing William laughing._

"Back to where we were," Madame brings our attention back to her, "we have precious little time."


	7. Chapter 7

**_Chapter 7. Destiny._**

**POV:**** William**

I am tempted to walk closer to where Madame is sitting, but I am afraid of Alton recovering and attempting to attack once again. Honestly, I am going crazy, I should be doing the same thing he just did, but I can´t find it within me to attack them. What has gotten into me? I don´t know.

"Both of you have an interesting future ahead of you." Madame's voice is serious; she is looking at Ivan and then towards me.

"Madame, we both know the future is not set on stone," Ivan rudely cuts her off.

"I know that, Ivan, I am living, breathing proof of that, but the possibility is high according to the scale. You don´t get a perfect balance easily." She turns her head towards me.

A thousand questions start running through my mind.

"How exactly does the scale works, Madame? Does it behave the same for anybody that asks questions?" I am curious to hear her information; she smiles at this. Ivan growls at my question; he has always been so impatient and, as usual, wants to jump to the conclusion.

"I wish I had more time, William, to explain to you how the scale works, so I´ll try to summarize it as best as I can," she sighs, "When I was human, I was a fortuneteller. I could look at somebody and know the possible futures that she or he had. The one that transformed me thought that my ability would enhance once I was changed, like a vampire.

"To his great disappointment, things don´t work like that for our kind. However, I didn´t lose my ability completely, but I depend on other items to be able to know the future now. At first the Tarot cards where clear enough, but after…" She runs her finger down her closed eyelids "…they no longer speak to me, since I can´t see them. However, the scale has been helpful; the trick of it is asking the right questions and understanding those small changes. To answer your second question, no, it seems that it only answer my questions, plus it has taken me a few years to interpret it. Not all questions have a yes or no answer."

"So, Madame, what was the question that created the perfect balance?" Ivan says. I look at him in a not very amicable way.

"I believe it's more important to understand what a perfect balance means," I snap at him. Madame chuckles, hearing our interaction.

"A perfect balance is a strange and a complicated situation, William, it means a major event." Her head turns from me to Ivan. "The first time that Ivan was presented to me, the scale indicated that he will have an important role in the werewolf destiny."

I look at Ivan and see he has a smug smile in his lips.

"But it looks like you will also; it never occurred to me to ask that question when I made your first reading. I assumed that you would be protected where I sent you." Her forehead furrows and there is a frown on her face.

"You specifically asked me to stay there and I didn´t, so it's not your fault." I can´t stop myself from telling her this. There are two mistakes that I regret; the first is not following Mother to wherever she went. Father ordered to not let her wander alone, I did not obey and she end up dead. The second time was because I didn´t follow Madame´s orders and I ended up becoming a vampire.

Two times I´ve not followed a rule or an order, look where it has gotten me. It seems that this is going to be the third time, considering that I did not kill the Children of the Moon, instead I saved them from Alton. I hate to think the repercussions this is going to have.

"We can´t keep blaming ourselves for the past. What is done is done, the only option we have is to keep on living and learn from our mistakes." My voice is full of sadness.

"William?" Madame is full of concern, but I am not looking at her anymore; I am looking at Alton's back.

"Never mind, Madame, it won´t happen again, as long as I follow the rules, right?" I finally look up to Madame, but she is shaking her head.

"Rules are there to try to make a society work—that doesn´t mean that they are right—as well as orders. It's not a bad thing to question them once in a while." I hear Ivan laughing at this and then disguising it as a cough. "That doesn´t means you need to disregard every single one of them, right, Ivan?" She turns her head towards him; one of her eyebrows shoots upwards, making Ivan shut up.

"I am sorry that we don´t agree on that, Madame, fate has taught me a thing or two regarding that." I give her a small smile.

"Fate will show you otherwise, William," Madame answers back. This time Ivan doesn´t even bother in disguising the laughter as a cough. "And you, too, Ivan." This certainly makes him quiet.

"What do you mean, Madame?" Ivan starts coming closer to Madame; she starts smiling, knowing that she hit a sour point in Ivan.

"You might at some point have looked identical, but you have always been quite the opposite in character. You, Ivan, have always been a little rebel—impatient, vain, impulsive, never thinking about the tomorrow or even the consequences," I bite my lip at hearing Madame´s spot on description of Ivan, "and you, William—always a little soldier, overthinking everything, following rules and orders, never questioning them." This time Ivan is the one chuckling.

"Ivan needs to learn to follow them and William needs to learn to ignore one or two every now and then, in order to achieve the perfect balance," Madame continues ignoring Ivan, "until then, no major changes in both our worlds will take place."

"So you are saying that the destiny of our species is going to depend on both of us? Seems to me that we are all doomed then." There is a sarcastic tone in Ivan and I can´t help at laughing a little at this.

"Don´t be a fool, Ivan!" Madame is not happy about the remark. "Of course not! You are just a mere pawn in the whole destiny."

"If this was a chess game, Madame, I believe we should at least be upgraded to a tower or a bishop, considering the seriousness of the situation." Oh, Ivan! Not a smart thing to say.

Madame moves fast, and before Ivan can stop his rambling she is in front of him, holding him by his chin and making him look down to where she is.

"Life is not a game, Ivan. It seems that we still have a long way to go with you before we can achieve that perfect balance." Her face is not happy at all; it seems that Ivan still has his magic touch to find a way to make enemies.

She quickly releases her hold on him and returns to her seat. "We are lucky your brother is half way there."

I am about to interrupt Madame and disagree with her perfect balance theory, but the small silhouette standing in the door interrupts us.

"Time for us to leave." Althea walks over to where I am and returns the map to my hands safely. "I believe you will find my drawing very similar to yours." She motions for me to open it; I do as she asks and I can´t tell the difference of what part she marked.

"What did you do to it?" Her face breaks into a smile; she is about to pinpoint but stops. "It's better for you not to know."

I look confused at her and then look at Ivan, but he shakes his head.

"One last thing, William," Madame says. I turn to look at her. "When you meet the right girl, you will start questioning the rules."

My hopes go up; it seems there is something to look forward in life, considering the mess that I currently am.

"So I assume Heidi is not the right girl?" Ivan speaks up. _How does he knows about her?_ I could swear that Alton laughs beneath me.

Madame ignores Ivan.

"And seems the girl that you are going to end up with…" Madame says, her head turning towards Ivan, a wicked smile on her face, "is going to like to follow rules, might even manage to put a leash on you."

Ivan laughs at this.

"Not only is she going to be the only female of her species, she is going to make me follow rules. I don´t think Althea will be capable of that." Ivan looks at Althea and winks at her. Althea's posture gets rigid.

"I am not the only female of my species, you moron! How many times do I have to tell you that?" She sounds angry.

"He has a thick skull; I am not certain it is ever going to go through it." I can´t help myself from telling this to Althea; her mad face breaks into an amused one. Madame actually laughs aloud at this.

"Thanks a lot, little brother." Ivan´s voice is now annoyed.

"I like you, William, and that is a long shot considering you are a vampire." Althea looks at me. "Why didn´t you become the werewolf and him the leech?" She points her thumb towards Ivan.

"Because fate has a sour sense of humor." I turn towards the voice and see that Roland is the one speaking. I didn´t hear him come in; there is also an amused expression on his face. "It is time, Madame."

Madame sighs and nods.

"William, in order to protect you and us, Althea will have to block the memory of us ever meeting." She approaches me. "You won´t be able to remember anything from the last twenty-four hours."

"What exactly are you going to do to me?" I look from Althea to Madame. As far as I understand, they are not planning on killing us, but blocking a memory… How does that even work?

"One of Althea´s ability is that. It has helped us in the past and she is the reason there are a few of us that remain unnoticed. She is responsible that we are not an extinct species." Madame´s face is turning towards Althea; she gives her a brief nod, kind of like thanking her for the help.

"I don´t think it's going to work. How am I going to explain to myself one missing day?" Althea might have tampered with the map, but there is no way she can tamper with the natural way of things, like skipping one day or eliminating one night from the moon cycle.

"She has her own way of making you not question yourself that much. Besides, we are confident that it will work; you are not the first Volturi guard that have undergone the treatment and I am afraid that you won´t be the last." Madame´s voice is sad.

"I am sorry to interrupt but there isn´t any time left. We need to get you both on the move," Althea says while bending down and placing her hand at each side of Alton´s temple. She closes her eyes and her face becomes troubled. "Such a terrible leech you are," her teeth are clenched and her lip is quivering, "It's a pity we don´t get to kill you."

She removes her hands and Alton's body becomes completely relaxed, as if he was sleeping.

"I agree with you; my only comfort is that Alton is an important milestone for William´s future," Madame says. I look at her, hoping for an explanation to her last comment, but she is not looking at me; instead, she is facing the wall.

"So he gets to kill him? " Ivan says, his voice whining.

Madame remains quiet, but there is a faint smile on her lips.

"Now it's your turn" Althea steps closer and puts her hands at each side of my face, her touch is warm, but cooler than a human.

"Wait!" Ivan comes closer.

"Ivan!" Althea snaps at him. "We need to get on the move, otherwise I can´t guarantee their safety with so many werewolves around. We need to put some distance between us."

"Can I say goodbye to him?" Ivan´s voice is soft, which manages to change Althea´s annoyed expression.

"Agghh, fine go ahead, but make it short." She moves to one side. Ivan is now in front of me.

"Until we meet again, little brother." He gives me a wicked smile. "Looking forward to seeing you again and challenging you to another round." I sigh and roll my eyes at him. "Find that girl that is going to make you question the rules and orders, and maybe, just maybe, I might follow a rule or two." I shake my head at him, but find amusement in what he is telling me.

He stands up and backs away. "And make sure she is something special and unique; we don´t settle down easily."

"That is because no one will take you, Ivan," Althea says under her breath. I can´t help from chuckling at this. Ivan ignores her.

"Keep yourself out of trouble, and even if you are a leech, I don´t hate you that much." This is the closest thing that I am going to get him to say that he misses me.

"You too, Ivan. Until we meet again." I smile at him; he gives me a brief nod. "Don´t give Madame too much trouble, a rule or two won´t kill you."

"Trouble is my middle name."

"I believe your middle name is Charles." Ivan has a grin on his face the moment I correct him.

"And correction was your middle name." I roll my eyes at him.

"It was Thomas." I can´t help but feel amused briefly, remembering the way we used to interact.

"Enough, you two." Althea comes and blocks my view; she has a severe tone to cut off Ivan, but I can see her smiling at me. She removes the cloak from around her. I am not able to smell the stench from Ivan; if anything, it has fruity lingering smell. "If you want to see him later on in life, I need to get him out and block his memory." She puts her hands at each side of my temple. "Close your eyes."

I do as she asks me.

"I will block your memory, but not as profoundly as I did to the other one. You´ll be able to remember us once you smell us and hear us," and then nothing.


	8. Chapter 8

**_Chapter 8.- A New Mission_**

**POV:**** William, a Soldier from the Volturi.**

**Location:**** Volterra, Italy.**

**Year:**** Winter 1862**

Who knew that my torture has finally come to an end? After five years of following Alton, we return to Volterra. I wish I could say that I am returning home, but it has never felt like that.

We pass the main entrance of the city, ready to report to the master the results of our scouting. As expected, we did not find a single trace to indicate that the Children of the Moon exist anymore. I hate to recognize that Alton was right; they are extinct, or at least the area that we verified.

As I move past the city streets, I feel sadness for what I am leaving behind, those endless days and nights when it wasn´t a full moon and not having Alton next to me. It gave me some time to think and get some kind of closure to my past, or at least that is what I believe happened, considering that I don´t let it bother me anymore.

Right now, I focus on my greatest concern, to inform the master of the result of our quest; hopefully he will be happy with our work. My second concern is meeting Heidi once again; I really truly hope that she found somebody else to fill my shoes during my absence and that she is not willing to let go of him.

We move at a human pace through the empty city passages, the moon in the sky lighting our way to the main entrance of the castle. No need to knock, the door is heavy enough that no human will be able to move it. There is no danger for a human trespasser and any vampire in their right mind will give a second thought of coming uninvited, unless they have a good reason.

As soon as we enter the castle, we remove the hood from our cloaks that were covering our faces. We walk through the corridors at our usual speed now and go straight to the quarters of Alton´s superior.

We pass the corridor from the throne room, the scent of a big human group lingering near it. Damn! It seems that Heidi is in the castle as well.

I stop moving the moment I hear a loud single scream coming out of the throne room; that is not usual, or at least not for a standard human group. Maybe a vampire broke the law and he or she is being punished inside, poor bastard, serves him or her right for breaking the law.

"Soldier," I turn and see that Alton is waiting for me to follow him, "we need to report to our superior before you decide on getting down to business with Heidi." There is a wicked smile on his face, idiot. I roll my eyes at him; if after five years together I have not convinced him that I do not care for her, there is no point now.

We continue moving until we reach our destination. We enter the room; inside there is a group of soldiers talking, not noticing our presence.

"They are making the stories up, there is no way that she is able to do that." I immediately recognize Alessandro's voice and thick Italian accent. He is known for his speed inside the guard, a good match against me, if I put my mind to it. "You saw how she moves, she is the closest thing to a human that I´ve ever come across."

"Alessandro, don´t confuse her physical abilities with the mental," Michael answers back.

"If she is as powerful as rumored, we wouldn´t have been able to catch her and look at the outcome, she is back with the master. Maybe it is all a bunch of lies," Alessandro snaps back at Michael.

"If the master wants her back without any harm there is a reason behind it." Michael shrugs his shoulders. "She is important, Alessandro, if the master is giving her a second chance. Maybe not to the extent that we heard about, but are you willing to find out?"

"I´ll bet she is more powerful than Jane," a voice from the left answers back. I turn and realize that it's Henry, Alton´s superior, who speaks. "You should have seen her face when she saw her." His eyes are set on a piece of wood that he is carving into what I believe is a bear.

This makes the discussion between Alessandro and Michael stop and they look at Henry.

"Or maybe Alec, you know how overprotective Jane is of him," Michael says, his face pensive.

"If she can mimic their abilities, she would be as important as the little duet," Henry says while the knife moves up and down the piece of wood.

"So another kid is going to start telling us what to do?" Alessandro's voice sounds angry at the implication. Everybody knows that most of the guards don´t appreciate being ordered by the twins, but nobody is dumb enough to say anything or confront them.

"She is not kid, I can tell you that," Michael chuckles at this, "she might be small, but she has all the right curves in the right places." This actually makes Henry lift his eyes from the piece of wood and look at Michael; it seems that he agrees with him.

"Maybe I should meet this vampire you are talking about," Alton interrupts the conversation, bringing everybody's attention to us. His voice has an amused tone that I have come to hate.

Every head in the room turns towards us and it is obvious they are not happy to see us back.

"You son of a gun, I was expecting for the Children of the Moon to kill you," Henry says with a joking tone and a smile on his face, but his eyes reveal that he was actually hoping for it to happen.

"Seems that you will need to pay up; as I told you, they´ve become extinct." Alton steps forward, enjoying being the center of attention.

"Not until you deliver the report to the master," Michael says, obviously not trusting Alton´s word. He knows the master will like the report from the devil's mouth, or actually from our memories, not that we have anything to lie about.

"I will be more than happy to do that, as soon as he finishes killing whatever soul he has in the throne room." There isn´t a single trace of sympathy in Alton's voice.

"Might take a while." Henry shrugs his shoulders and continues carving the bear.

The door to the room opens and Felix steps in. I immediately salute him, as the rest of us do, except for Henry; he stops carving and stands up.

"The master wishes to see you." Felix doesn´t even bother to look at the rest of us, the order is clear that it's for Henry.

Henry grabs his cloak, puts it around his neck, and walks towards the door without uttering a single word or looking at any of us.

Felix looks at the rest of us, his eyes stopping at Alton, and a smile breaks on his face.

"Looking forward to a rematch," Felix says seriously. I don´t look at Alton, however I am certain that he is enjoying the opportunity to finally fight somebody.

Felix continues looking, his gaze stopping on me.

"Seems that Heidi is going to be happy that her little pet is back." There is a sour tone in his voice now. "Demetri won´t." He turns around and leaves the room, Alton´s laughter breaking the silence.

Oh, damn!

…...

After some more small talk we both leave the room; I feel relief at being able to be away from Alton. Hopefully we'll meet each other to give the report to the master and then go our separate ways for a very long time. Now my new goal is to hide from Heidi as much as possible.

I walk away and decide to go to the rooftop to enjoy probably my last night alone, before Heidi finds me and decides to keep me captive as her sex toy until she needs to leave and get a new group for us to feed on.

I reach the rooftop and l look up to the sky; it has been a while since I looked at the full moon without the thought of 'keep looking and running'. I'm finally able to appreciate its beauty, together with the beautiful horizon that the Tuscany landscape has to offer.

A hear a couple of heavy steps approaching me, but I don´t take my eyes from the intoxicating view. The set of footsteps stop when they are next to me. I finally turn and see that it's Henry, his eyes on the horizon.

"It is a beautiful sight," he says, his eyes mesmerized. I start to make the salute—he is my superior, after all—but he raises his hand stopping me. "No need for that, William, at least not now."

"If you insist," I answer back dubiously, but comply with his wishes. He keeps still for a couple of minutes, until he sighs and looks at me.

"I imagine you have missed Heidi during these past few years, so what I am about to tell you is not good news." He finally breaks the silence; I keep my face still, not wanting to reveal my true feelings regarding Heidi. However, I feel nervous that the news is that I am being dismissed from the guard. "The master has a new task for you, and from what I understood it involves leaving Volterra once again for an indefinite time now."

I nod, feeling relief that I remain a soldier.

"What exactly is the task that he has in mind?" I say, putting as much confidence in my voice as I can.

"It is a secret mission that involves looking after a prisoner," I see some doubt in his face, "that is all that I know of it."

"I am sure Alton is not going to be too happy about the news," I say, remembering how excited Alton was about returning. This is definitely going to put him in a terrible mood. Henry immediately starts shaking his head.

"This time it's only going to be you." His voice is full of certainty; I can´t help at smiling at this, so far the news has not been as bad as I was expecting. "The master expects you at the gutter that is at the north side of the gate at midnight."

I nod, a thousand questions running through my mind. Who is this prisoner that I´ll be looking after? How long is this going to take? Maybe I´ll get a better description once I meet the master.

Henry starts walking away towards the door, but stops before he reaches it. He looks at me, his face hesitant.

"Don´t underestimate her, William, she is powerful." This actually makes me nervous.

"Who am I going to look after?" I find myself saying, not able to stop myself from speaking.

"I am only guessing, William—the master never revealed to me who it is—but if you find yourself with a petite dark-haired woman, don´t risk it, she is smart." He turns around and leaves me. I take a final glance at the moon, sigh, and walk towards the new location; I hope this new task is better than the last one.

…...

I enter the gutter and move silently through it. I hope to see the master anytime, however I find myself with another figure hiding in the shadows; I recognize the dark cloak—the closest one in coloring that the master and his brothers have, only a shade lighter—Chelsea. She signals me to move on. I do as she indicates and she follows me.

I reach a small clearing where the master is, together with Jane and Alec, their small figures at each of his sides; in front, two soldiers are holding a small figure, her dark hair loose and her white dress dirty, its skirts soaked. I stop a few steps behind them; the master lifts his head when he sees me come in.

"You are aware of your orders, soldier." The master says, the order clear in the phrase. I start feeling a stronger pull to comply with his orders, to impress him.

"Yes, Master," I answer back, not a single doubt in my mind that I will do as told. The burning question that has been bugging me since Henry told me about this mission leaves my lips without me able to stop myself. "Only one question, Master, why me?"

"Your strengths and her weaknesses make you perfect for this job," the master answers, sounding somewhat annoyed, but I can´t help feeling proud to be recognize and singled out by him.

I hear a couple of steps retreating; I turn around and get a small glimpse of Chelsea´s cloak turning around the corner leaving us. I return to where the master is.

The small figure starts screaming; I recognize those screams, I heard them when I passed the throne room a few hours ago. This time I feel like they are piercing my insides, but I remain where I am and keep my face cool.

The two soldiers that are holding her are not able to handle her and let her fall, her head hitting hard on the concrete.

"Jane, darling, please stop, you already had your fun and we don't want to kill her…yet," the master says, looking at Jane, his look not approving. Jane stops torturing the poor girl.

The master turn and looks at me now.

"Instruct her in the basics of what it means to be one of us and to never reveal who or what she is. Think of her as a newborn." His voice is clear and severe, no room for any questioning. "We will know if you don't obey, and you can figure what kind of punishment awaits if you do." His face turns towards the girl, indicating a similar punishment. I don´t wish this future upon me and most certainly I don´t want to upset the master.

The master comes near her; I could almost swear there is hesitation in his steps. He stops after three steps, bends down, and looks at her.

"Remember, if you can, you brought this upon yourself, too bad you don't want to be a part of our plans. You would have been an excellent addition in our guard, but as always, you are as stubborn as a mule, let's hope that changes in a few years," the Master says to her; she raises her hand and immediately starts screaming. I look up and see that Jane´s eyes are on her.

The master stands and goes back to where he was originally.

"Alec, Jane, you know what you need to do." He leaves us. Jane and Alec approach her, a greedy look in Jane´s face. I remain as I am; if this is what the master wants, so be it. The girl is probably getting what she deserves.

I move to one side to let Alec and Jane work to accomplish the master´s orders. The fog from Alec´s ability starts to cover her and before I know it, they are both at each side of her and start biting her hands off. _What did she do to deserve this?_ I keep my feelings in place and start saying to myself that she probably deserves this.

Jane and Alec take each of her hands. Jane opens a small black velvet bag and puts one of her hands in it and then Alec does the same. She is actually giggling at this.

"Good luck with the little witch," Jane says while looking at me, her face full of amusement. I nod at her. They both start to leave together with the other two soldiers, taking her hands with them.

The fog starts to lift up as soon as Alec leaves. I get closer to where she is; I can see that she is in pain, probably even weak from it.

She starts to move.

I bend down and pick up her small body, her scent reaching my nostrils; it is so sweet and intoxicating. I look down and I am finally able to get a good look at her face despite the darkness of the sewer. She has very beautiful and delicate features, but her eyes are what I can´t stop looking at. She looks so innocent and young. I feel drawn to her and somehow, deep down, I get the feeling that I need to keep her safe, not because of the order of the master, I just can´t bear the thought of seeing her in pain again.

I start walking through the tunnels, the need to get her away from the twins growing. I don´t want to hear her scream again or see her convulsing as I just did.

She points her arm towards the direction where Alec and Jane left, but stops when she gets a good look at it and notices her missing limbs; she looks at me, her eyes full of despair, and starts to scream, piercing my insides. As fast as it starts, it stops; her eyes become vacant and her body becomes limp.

The shock of losing her hands hits her hard; hopefully she will come to her senses soon enough, once the burning in her throat becomes unbearable. Right now, my main priority is getting away from Volterra as fast as I can and looking for a safe place to keep her hidden and comply with the master's orders.

I really hope this mission is easier than the last one. On the bright side, I don´t get to see Alton´s back anymore or hear his annoying comments, instead I get to see this beautiful face that in a few seconds manage to light up my spirit and create a warm strange feeling within my heart.

**Disclaimer:**** All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.**

Thanks to Chandrakanta, for helping Beta this document and to transform my crazy and long "outtake" into something that is readable.

Thanks to Mina Rivera for the awesome banner.

Thanks to Madalina for helping me Beta the summary and the teaser for the story.

Above all, Thanks to you reader for donating to Fandom for Mexico.

If you like this story I recommend reading Solstice, which continues William´s adventure together with the little vampire.


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